Most artillery units seem to have begun the war named for the city or county that sponsored their organization. In the Official Records, artillery units are most often referred to by the name of their battery commander. During the war, some effort was made to organize artillery units into battalions and regiments, but the units almost never functioned above the battery level, and were often broken out and fought as single gun sections. For these reasons the Arkansas artillery organizations are listed by several names. The Arkansas batteries which served primarily in the Confederate Army of Tennessee or Army of Mississippi, (east of the Mississippi River) were "officially" designated as "_st Arkansas Light Artillery". On November 19, 1864, General E. Kirby Smith, commanding the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department, issued Special Orders No. 290, organizing the artillery of the department into battalions, and listing the various batteries as "_st Arkansas Field Battery". The component batteries rarely, if ever, operated together. They were usually assigned individually to an infantry or cavalry brigade.
| Numerical | Local Name | Commander | Commander | Commander | Commander | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st Arkansas Light Artillery, | "Fort Smith Artillery", | Reid's Battery, | Provence's Battery, | Humphreys' Battery | Rivers' Battery | |
| 2nd Arkansas Light Artillery, | "Clark County Artillery", | Robert's Battery, | Wiggins Battery. | |||
| Company C, Shoup's Artillery Battalion, | "Jackson Light Artillery", | Thrall's Battery, | McCown's Battery, | Hubbard's Battery, | ||
| 1st Arkansas Field Battery, | "John D. Adams Artillery",
"Adams Artillery", |
Gaines' Battery, | McNally's Battery, | |||
| 2nd Arkansas Field Battery, | "Dallas Artillery" | Hart's Battery, | ||||
| 3rd Arkansas Field Battery, | "Totten Light Artillery",
"Pulaski Light Artillery", "Weaver Light Artillery" |
Woodruff’s Battery, | Marshall's Battery, | |||
| 4th Arkansas Field Battery, | "Desha County Artillery", | West's Battery, | ||||
| 5th Arkansas Field Battery, | "Memphis Appeal Battery",
"Appeal Artillery", |
Bryan's Battery, | Hogg's Battery, | Scott's Battery, | ||
| 6th Arkansas Field Battery, | "Washington Artillery", | Etter's Battery, | ||||
| 7th Arkansas Field Battery, | Blocher's Battery, | Zimmerman's Battery, | ||||
| 8th Arkansas Field Battery, | Hughey's Battery, | |||||
| 9th Arkansas Field Battery, | Trigg's Battery, | |||||
| Company B, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery,
Company A, 1st Tennessee Heavy Artillery, |
"McCown Guards", or
"McCown Guards Artillery" |
Dismukes' Battery, | ||||
| Company D, 4th Arkansas Infantry Battalion, | "Magruder Guards", | Hoadley's Battery, | ||||
|
Company A, Shoup's Artillery Battalion, Company C, 20th Alabama Light Artillery, Company H, 28th Georgia Light Artillery, |
"Helena Artillery" | Calvert's Battery, | Clarkson's Battery, | Key's Battery, | ||
| Company B, Shoup's Artillery Battalion, | Trigg's Arkansas Battery, or
The "Austin Artillery", |
Auston's Battery, | Austin's Battery, | |||
| "Moticello Artillery" or
"Drew Light Artillery", |
Owen's Battery, | Howell’s Battery, | ||||
| Ried's Arkansas Battery, | Ried's Battery, | |||||
| "Robert C. Newton Artillery" or
"Netwon Artillery", |
Brown's Battery, | |||||
| Shoup's Mountain Battery, | Shoups Battery, |